Some time ago, I reviewed the four episode anime series, Corpse Party: Tortured Souls. It was a pretty neat show that I think works as a horror series, but said that it wasn’t for everyone. Before I watched that anime, I had not played any of the Corpse Party games. But, I can now say that it has changed. And I managed to get the 3DS version for the low, low price of only almost sixty bucks. What the hell?! Well, let’s get into the review of Corpse Party for 3DS.



First off, why did this game that isn’t really that big in content cost so much? Because you cannot play this game in the States. At least not in its original form. The game was originally just Japanese only, but they did release Corpse Party: Back to School Edition, which can be played in America, and comes with figures of two of the characters, the games soundtrack, and the game itself. Was that all worth almost sixty dollars? Eh… kinda. The figures, I’d say, could go around for, maybe, twenty. The game, maybe also twenty, and the soundtrack, probably ten. I say that, if you like the franchise, you get what you pay for, so I guess it’s not all bad. But that aside, let’s talk about the story of this game. If you saw my review of Tortured Souls, then you already know the story from here. A group of high school students perform a charm that results in it failing and thus, they end up inside of Heavenly Host Elementary, a cursed school that is filled with the angered souls of the children murdered in this school and the nine characters involved must escape before they all die. Characters consist of Satoshi, the crybaby bitch who every girl wants for some reason. Naomi, the tomboy who gets screwed over, probably the most out of everyone. Ayumi, the class rep who wants Satoshi so badly she doesn’t even notice Yoshiki’s attempts to save her. Speaking of Yoshiki, he’s the bad boy who does everything he can to protect Ayumi. Seiko is a lesbian. Mayu is a nobody. Ms. Yui is a teacher who just kinda gets dragged into this hell. Sakutaro, the nerd who actually does very little aside from be real creepy, and Yuka, Satoshi’s little sister who loves him way more than should be socially acceptable. But then there are some characters they run into inside Heavenly Host, like Naho, a friendly, or rather, less-knife crazy ghost who talks to the group regularly, and Yuuya, a complete sociopath who believes that when a person is dying, do they show their true selves. Yuuya is honestly more insane than any of the ghost kids in this school, but I’ll get into his antics later. For now, since we have the plot and characters out of the way, let’s discuss the gameplay.



Corpse Party on the 3DS is a remake of the original one of PC. Yeah, that RPG Maker game from the 90s. It doesn’t play much better, but it looks a little nicer. The pixel art is more refined and isn’t as muddy as it was before. That aside, I have to ask, why Corpse Party? I mean, I don’t hate it, but of all the RPG Maker games to get popular, with manga, anime adaptations, remakes, sequels, and merchandise, why Corpse Party? Why not something like Ib with it’s creative world, or the more psychological Yume Nikki. Though, I think it has to do with Corpse Party being more story driven, more in your face, and just coming out at the right time for people to be disturbed. Horror PC games were at their peak in the 90s. System Shock 2, 7th Guest, Sanitarium, Phantasmagoria, I Have No Mouth, and that’s not even mentioning that Silent Hill and Resident Evil were just starting in this time. As much shit I give the nineties, I will admit, it was a great time for horror games. And I think, in this sea of great horror games, Corpse Party was just there at the right time. In 1996, when there weren’t much memorable horror games for PC, and the only worthwhile horror game at the time was the original Resident Evil, Corpse Party took the place as a memorable PC horror game. And thus, allowed itself to be memorized and loved for years. At least, that’s what I’m going with. It gave us the up-skirt panty shots and brutal murders that we know today… Actually, speaking of brutal murders, the 3DS game actually isn’t that violent. There are some scenes of gore and blood, but nowhere on the level of Tortured Souls. I won’t blame that on the game, it is trying its best with a pixel art style, but with the anime still images, it could have tried something. In those images, they actually censor some violence. While not on the level of blocking out gore with ugly circles or white light, they just position characters in just the right spot to hide a person’s severed torso. In the anime, you couldn’t go one episode without seeing a kid get their eye ripped out or their tongue cut off. Thankfully, Corpse Party manages to make up for it. Just like in the anime, the game uses something well. Since it doesn’t have visuals, it uses sound to it’s advantage.



Once again, Corpse Party manages to have some very good voice actors when it comes to presenting fear. When the characters need to scream, the voice actors give a very loud scream. There are points where I recommend using headphones at times to get the full experience of these screams and whimpers of terror. Though the audio isn’t always perfect. There are times when a person is dripping blood, yet it sounds like someone is just pissing into a toilet. And there will be the inevitable anime crap that may turn some people away, like constantly referring to siblings as brother instead of by name or just grabbing a big ol’ handful of some girls breasts. It’s not scary, it’s actually kinda silly. But you know what is scary? Dying to some bullshit. Corpse Party is a game where the smallest thing will cause you to get a bad ending, or a Wrong End as the game calls it. I assure you, if you are not lucky or using a walkthrough, you will not get passed this game without dying at least a couple times on your first try. The game can be very harsh with this, but not completely cruel. The game is divided up into five chapters and each of those chapters has their own set of five save slots. So, if you succeed in one chapter and screw up on another and get a bad ending, you don’t have to go back to the start of the game to do everything over. Hell, you don’t even have to start the episode over again. Just reload a temporary save and continue. I can’t even tell you how many times I used a temporary save in this game because I was worried about dying. And plus I thought wasting too much time on puzzles would get me killed. Speaking of puzzles, there were not many good ones. Some were either incredibly easy, like just bring this item to this room, while others were so vague that you were just supposed to know where to take it. There was one puzzle I liked, where you had to use the clock as a compass while reading Chinese Zodiac signs on where to find some items. For example, the Dog takes ten steps north and the Dragon takes six steps west. I liked that puzzle, that was pretty creative. But other than that, I can’t think of much puzzles that really impressed me.



Another thing that may turn people away is the walking. Lots of this game is walking, and not much else. There is no combat, or exploration. There is just puzzles, story between characters, and then walking. And this, I know, can turn people away from a game. But, this is technically a visual novel puzzle game, so if you’re coming here for the gameplay, I’m sorry to say that you are playing Corpse Party for the wrong reason. But if you are playing for the story and hate it, then that’s fine. With that in mind, I do like some parts of the story. I like that there is a reason for the school existing and how the charm failed, and I really like how each character has more character and personality given to them rather than just bad boy, or class president. Except Mayu, she’s still a nobody. I did really grow to like some of these characters, like Satoshi and Naomi and Yoshiki. And I also grew to really get invested in the story, and enjoyed that small things can change the outcome of the story. Are the Wrong Ends bullshit, yes, and I think that telling me I got a Wrong End even at the end of the final chapter when I get a bad ending kind of ruins the emotion that was in it, but it gives me Silent Hill vibes, where looking at a picture of the characters wife can lead to the good ending, while refusing to heal yourself can lead to the sader ending. That’s the kind of thing I get from this game, where depending on how you interact with characters and the environment can change the outcome. And it really helps when you are trying to get the best ending, which I was in my first play though. It wasn’t easy, I assure you. You have to not look at some characters, you have to give certain items to people, and (Spoilers) you can screw up the chant near the end game you have to perform. Yes, you have to perform the chant for yourself. And you can screw it up. That’s not bad. But while the game isn’t bad, is it scary?



I feel like, to an extent, it can be scary. It depends on some of the situations. Most of the time, there is very little happening and making you scared. But I think that it works in the games favor. The brief moment of a break from the terror makes it more bearable and makes the scares more disturbing, even when it’s nothing that scary. It’s just some black shadow monster, ghost kids, and some asshole in a school uniform. When Naomi is trapped in the room with the shadow creature, that can get pretty scary. When the ghost kids are chasing you in the main floor, that can be scary. When (Spoilers) Yuuya is chasing Yuka all across the second wing of the school while singing and screaming at her that he’s going to kill her, that is utterly terrifying and puts you on edge, as you try your best to avoid him, and trying to run passed him when he inevitably traps you in a corner. It can become nerve wracking at some instances and when the scares come, they come hard. Some may see these walking sections as boring, and yes, I won’t deny that they can get pretty tiresome, but it allows the game to break up the horror and the peace, and allows for even something as un-scary as a highschool student to be scary, and I think that is the genius gameplay of Corpse Party.



Corpse Party is a very strange horror game that some of us may never understand. Hell, I still don’t know how it got so popular. But what I will say is that I understand why people like it. The characters are very likable and you want to see them survive, the location is very scary, and the gameplay has the right mix of peaceful silence from the enemies that hunt you and the fear and pressure that is put on you when they are coming after you. Corpse Party knew how to scare it’s people and that is what allowed it to get people to like and talk about it. Corpse Party, I will say, is not a horror game meant for everyone, especially if you are not a fan of anime. But if you don’t mind some generic anime tropes and some full on tit squeezing, than this game may just be for you. Take care.